“Racism and Other Challenges” – “Racism in Recent American History”

President Dallin H. Oaks of the First Presidency

27 October, 2020 BYU Devotional Address.

“As we go forward on that path, furthering our prophet’s plea for us to abandon “attitudes and actions of prejudice,” we are helped by understanding what racism is and something of its history.

There are many examples of racism in recent American history. The examples most familiarly reported by the media today are those that victimize Black Americans. These include the police brutality and other systemic discrimination in employment and housing publicized recently. Racism is still recognizable in official and personal treatment of Latinos and Native Americans. Less familiar in our day is America’s history of racism against Asians, which began with Chinese immigrants who worked on the transcontinental railroad. It was not until a century ago that Native Americans were considered U.S. citizens and that Asians were allowed to apply for U.S. citizenship.” (Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.)